


Spotlight

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:54:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29028288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: Rindy captures life in a video camera. Carol ends up being the star.
Relationships: Carol Aird & Rindy Aird, Carol Aird & Therese Belivet, Carol Aird/Abby Gerhard
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Day 1**

“What do you want me to say?”

“You can say anything you want.”

Carol looks amused. Rindy holds the camcorder against her squinty eye; zooming the lens to fill her mother’s whole face. 

“Erm,” she goes.

“Let’s start with breakfast. What did you have?” Rindy asks her.

“Cigarettes and coffee,” Carol smirks.

“Very nutritious! A morning dose of caffeine and nicotine! Smoking kills. Did you know that, Mom?” Rindy backs up the lens, catching Carol shaking her head very slowly, closing her eyes.

“Rindy, I feel stupid doing this,” Carol sighs loudly, opening her eyes back to the camera. 

“Let’s talk about the time when you were pushed off the slide during recess in grade school.” 

“The mean girls did it. I scraped my knee and spent the rest of the day in the nurse’s office until it was time to go home.” 

“Which parent brought you home?”

“My mother. She scolded me for not being too careful. My father took us out for ice cream later that evening...” Carol trails off, but her daughter keeps recording. She clears her throat waiting for the next question.

“Mom, what was going through your mind the first time you laid your eyes on Therese?”

“I’m going to break her heart.”

Rindy snorts and lowers the camera. Carol isn’t joking. Sadness rolls in, and she picks at her nails, absentmindedly.

“Turn that off,” she orders. “We’re done for now.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Day 2**

Abby Gerhard slams the car door shut and retreats from her Subaru wearing an oversized mocha cardigan and jeans. Rindy stands outside the apartment filming her walking towards the salted steps. Abby peers up looking right into the video camera.

“Aunt Abby has arrived,” Rindy begins. “She’s been with the family for a very long time. Carol’s childhood friend and first female lover. My favorite relative, my godmother.” 

Abby keeps looking at the red blinking light.

“Are we making a movie?”

“It’s a documentary,” Rindy tells her. She holds the camcorder in perfect eye level. “Please come inside so the world can learn more about you.”

Rindy has Abby positioned to stand in the hallway with the pale yellow wallpaper for background. She zooms in, zooms out, adjusting the blurry view. 

“Aunt Abby, you’ve been with us for awhile, yes?” Rindy speaks.

“I knew your mother—Carol—long before knowing the Airds. Our parents grew up together. Carol was my babysitter. She was fifteen. I was ten. Five years apart.” Abby straightens her posture, shifting her feet. 

“Tell us what she was like as a sitter. Did she make you go to bed on time? Eat all your vegetables? Clean up your room?”

Abby looks away, remembering back. 

“Well, Carol had told me straightforward, “If you treat me with kindness and respect, I’ll go easy’.” So I did, and she was wonderful. It was like having a big sister in the house.”

“When did you realize you liked her more than just a ‘big sister’?” Rindy questions. 

Abby glances briefly at the camera feeling awkward to share something so personal.

“We’re all human, Aunt Abby. It’s okay,” Rindy consoles her.

“When I was thirteen, I took a bus to the old palace theater to watch my mother work on an upcoming dance recital. She was the ballet instructor. Carol sat a few rows below me watching the dancers rehearse. She was alone in a pretty light blue sweater. Eighteen and single, she didn’t know I was even there.”

“Now tell us the summer when your mother’s car broke down and you guys ended up sleeping on your old twin bed.”

“Wow. Sounds like you know it better than I do. Who’s going to watch this anyway?”

“Nobody! It’s just something to do.”

The camera captures Abby taking a loud breath looking all done. A voice calls over to them. Rindy moves the camera upwards to show Carol leaning over the stair banister on the main floor. She’s been waiting patiently for them to finish. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Day 3**

Rindy opens up her camera and films the backside of Carol walking towards the store entrance of Dollar Deluxe with her purse hanging from her wrist. She peers over from her shoulder and clicks her teeth with distaste. 

“I told you not to bring that with us.”

“Get used to it. We are living in a world where everything needs to be watched and recorded!”

The camera captures a few people walking and leaving the drugstore wearing face masks and shield guards. The film follows the audience through the brightly lit drugstore with Valentine’s Day decorations displayed everywhere. Rindy sets the camera on Carol grabbing a green shopping basket. She swerves around zooming in on a dump bin filled with school lunch boxes. 

“Depressing how they still have their ‘Back To School’ stuff they’ve put out since last September. The missed out opportunities of students trading turkey sandwiches, pudding cups, fruit roll ups...” Rindy trails off. 

Carol turns right and heads down the hallmark card & candy aisle with Rindy trying to keep up. She makes a comment on film how lanky her mother’s legs are with the big feet. 

“Big Bird’s about to go pick up my grandfather’s prescription,” she explains on camera.

“Don’t you call me that,” Carol scolds her. She stops on the 6-feet floor decal behind a middle aged man wearing a blue bandanna over his mouth. Rindy snickers and brings the camera down below viewing Carol’s white platform sneakers.

“Big Bird covers the green six-foot square completely. Tell us what size you wear. Ten? Eleven?”

Carol gives her a warning look for her to knock it off. Rindy giggles making the guy in front of them turn around curiously.

The footage cuts several minutes into Carol receiving the paper bag through the glass window peephole and dropping it into the basket which Rindy leaves the camera on for a long minute.

“You grabbed a basket just for that?” she questions. 

“And other things,” Carol speaks sharply. She starts leaving the pharmacy counter with the pharmacist looking back wearing a mask. Rindy follows her mother towards the beauty aisle catching her pulling out a bottle of nail polish remover and bag of cotton balls. 

“We mustn’t go without those,” Rindy says in full sarcasm.

“Here’s an idea. Why don’t you take your camera outside and see if it’s snowing yet?” Carol suggests.

“Boring. Let’s talk about what you’re getting for Therese on Valentine’s Day,” Rindy zooms the camera on a row of nail polish her mother’s checking out.

“Ha. You’re funny.” Carol answers.

“Chocolates? Roses? A text message telling how much you love her?” 

“Therese will get those things from Richard, I’m sure.” Carol drops a few polish bottles into the basket before moving towards the hair accessories & skin care. 

“ _Dun, dun, dun!_ There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. My mother reveals what we’ve been wondering all along. Her ex-girlfriend, Therese, has moved on and built a new life with a man, her fiancé, Richard Semco.”


End file.
